Authorities on Wednesday carried out a trial run of vehicular traffic through the 8.5 km double tube four lane strategic Banihal-Qazigund tunnel on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
The work on the crucial tunnel, which cuts through the heart of the Pir Panjal mountain range, will reduce the travel distance by 16 km on the strategic highway.
According to officials, construction work on the tunnel was started in 2011 by the Andhra Pradesh based 'Navyug Engineering Company' after approval by the NHAI at an estimated cost of over Rs 2000 crore.
Authorities had scheduled the trial run through the tunnel by the end of this month.
A senior traffic police officials said as per the plan, one hundred vehicles were allowed to use the tunnel from Banihal towards Qazigund.
Terming it as a historic day, chief manager of Navyug Engineering Company, Muneeb Ahmad Tak said the trial run which was originally scheduled for an hour from 4-5 pm, has now been extended till 6 pm.
The tunnel is expected to be thrown open for public in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, traffic was suspended on Wednesday on the 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway in view of weekly maintenance of the road, particularly between Nashree and Jawahar tunnel.
However, national highway, the only road connecting Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir, historic 86-km-long Mughal road and Anantnag-Kishtwar roads are through for traffic, a traffic police official said.
He said no traffic was allowed from Srinagar or Jammu on the highway, the only all weather road linking Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, to allow the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to undertake weekly maintenance of the road.
The authorities have decided to suspend traffic on the highway on every Wednesday to allow NHAI to undertake necessary maintenance of the highway so that the only road link to Kashmir remained open during other week days.
However, he said, only one-way traffic was allowed on Srinagar-Leh highway today. He said vehicles will ply from Kargil in Ladakh region to Srinagar. No vehicle will be allowed from opposite direction, he added. Kashmir bound Vehicles had to leave Minamarg between 0700 hrs to 1400 hrs, he said adding no vehicle will be allowed before and after cut off timing.
He said the Mughal road, which connects Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, was open. However, he said, only load carriers, including fresh perishable fruit and vegetables and empty trucks and oil tankers shall be allowed to ply from Heerpora Shopian towards Poonch tomorrow between 0900 hrs to 1400 hrs.
No vehicle will be allowed before and after cut off timing, he said adding no passenger vehicle or pedestrian will be allowed on the road. However, medical emergencies will be allowed to travel after obtaining proper permission from concern authority.
He said only vehicles carrying passengers for medical emergencies will be allowed to ply on Kishtwar-Anantnag-Srinagar road.